On the original cash-shop thread on US forums (now locked), Maldazzar posted these interesting ideas which I think summarizes very well the issues layered with this feature:

1. Your subscription is paying for content that you're literally incapable of obtaining without further payment.

2. XP-boosts and Charms of Good Fortune are "pay-to-win", because on some level, they provide an advantage to those with more money.

3. They is a serious, logical concern that these will lead to even more microtransactions, ranging from purchasing actual armor, to even charging to access new Dungeons, Raids, or Battlegrounds.

4. The transmog-helms were a missed opportunity to actually add more gameplay to WoW, as they could have very easily have been rare-drops or rewards for new, extravagant quests.

5. Transmogrification is "meaningful content" to some players, and the fact that Blizzard is now comfortable with charging for that content means that you can no longer count on having new, compelling Armor-designs to look forward to.

6. Like all cash-shop items, the transmog-helms will become meaningless; since there is literally zero effort put into obtaining them, they hold no sentimentality, and are destined to run the same gambit as the Heart of the Aspects, which leads into...

7. Many players frown upon Pets and Mounts being sold, because so many of them would have felt more satisfying as rewards for other feats. Sparkle-pony should have been a rare-drop from Algalon, which would have completely changed peoples' perception of it, Heart of the Aspects should have been a Fangs of the Father reward, and even the new Bat-mount, players have been asking for a bat-mount ever since Burning Crusade.

8. Every other MMO to attempt a cash-shop while also having a mandatory subscription has failed, which leads some to worry that this could hurt Blizzard financially in the long-term.

9. Another worry is that every MMO who attempted the same business-model also went Free-to-Play, which many players deem undesirable, and even fundamentally at-odds with what World of Warcraft used to be, since F2P games never have a "level playing-field".

On a personal note, I very much agree with the 4th topic; July to September you will not see much action happening since there aren't any world events or 5.4 any time soon; why not create something unique and fun and implement these helms as a reward for such content instead of just putting them for freaking RL cash?

1. Your subscription is paying for content that you're literally incapable of obtaining without further payment.

if you think about it, Blizzard have a track record for this anyway. you pay for an expansion that you are literally incapable of playing without additionally paying for a period of subscription as well.

Blizzard are riding on the back of a customer base that appears to be unable to behave like normal consumers. instead you see people in this thread not only defending the actions of a corporate entity as it tries to suck its customers dry, but actually applauding them.

honestly, it makes me want to set up a business just so i can try and target these people with as many "money for old rope" business opportunities as i can think up. anybody want to talk to a nigerian prince?

When challenging a Kzin, a simple scream of rage is sufficient. You scream and you leap.

Over the last 10 years, Blizzard has taken over $10bn from MMO players. Take a look around your game...do you see $10bn worth of content available to you? Do you see even a tiny fraction of that in relevant content? Now ask me again why I dislike what Blizzard has done to the MMO industry.

You pay a monthly fee to be able to log in to your account and play; nothing more, nothing less.

Wrong! You are currently paying for whatever you are currently getting, whatever that may be. When any said thing changes for better or worse, you then may be paying for whatever that may be. You VOTE with your payment. Your monthly fee exists ONLY IF you keep paying it. People 100% should say whatever they want about something that they may have already paid 6 months in the future for!

This is as DUMB as saying.. "You eat in order to live; nothing more, nothing less." As if the kinds of foods will not have any effect on your future, or your end.

Blizzard is a business and they have to do with that money whatever they feel will be most profitable. [...] The most important thing to realize is that Blizzard will NEVER make Tier Sets or any current content gear available for cash...

What?????

Originally Posted by ACES

The latter is designed to bring in additional revenue to be able to develop more content.

why not create something unique and fun and implement these helms as a reward for such content instead of just putting them for freaking RL cash?

This is the single largest thing that Bliz still does not understand. Content sells WoW. They still have no idea what that word "content" is for the majority of their players. The lore and story involvement helped Wrath, as the newness and availability helped BC. Hopefully flex raids and proving grounds will help new players some. I've talked with many new players that have no idea what things do on their toon that have been playing for more than 2 years. This is because the need is gone, because LFR is just a sad mess for the game in all ways. LFR teaches nothing positive whatsoever. New players get yelled at because they have no idea what they are doing, but at the same time have nobody telling them what they should be doing. Older players are in endless LFR queues, then log out, especially if they must normal raid on top of this. Bad idea to add quest items in an endless LFR grind so that friends and guildies (the majority of the game) are not playing together most of their time spent online, and are getting burnt out in LFR.

Winning something together in the old days with your guild felt much better than winning something alone in LFR today.

Why would anyone what to be wearing 1 of 3 things that hundreds of other players on your newly joined realms in 5.4 will be wearing? I just do not understand the thinking here. Also, the blue one is the only one that looks like it somewhat goes with "a" legendary cloak that can't be used for xmog anyway for 99% of people. This is so fail for people actually buying those items.. It's just like putting a big sign on your head saying "Hey I buy dumb stuff for real money, please sell me something".

The trading card items were collectibles. Furthermore, they were not just profitable to the third party, but to Blizzard as well (because royalties).
It's basically a perk for people who love WoW so much that they're willing to even play a CCG in the setting (even if it's not that great, and the artwork is just crap).

Exclusive pets from the special editions and blizzcons also fall into the 'perk' category.

The cash shop items (all of them) are different because vanity-for-sale is typical of (better quality) F2P games. People have long since supported WoW because it was subscription based, which means (to most) that, even though you pay, you can get the same stuff as everybody else, if you try hard enough. Pretty much making everything you gain an in-game achievement.
F2P games, on the other hand, offer the basic stuff, that which you require, as in-game, and add 'special' exclusive vanity gear to their cash shop: If you want it, you need to buy it. That is their business model; that is how they make money. You can set yourself apart by paying more.

They are two completely different business models.

With the cash shop, Blizzard is pretty much still asking for a subscription, but your skill or in-game dedication and perseverence no longer dictates whether or not you can gain access to exclusive, unique-ish items. Instead, you will need to pay for them. So they're adding the F2P business model to a P2P game, meaning that they effectively use a double business model, and one that is unfair to proponents of either.

Did this explain the problems people have with this model? Well; yes. Do you now understand it? I doubt it... You don't want to understand, after all.

No matter how you turn it, there is NO difference between fluff items in WoW introduced by Cryptozoic and sold by a 3rd party and the new fluff items now introduced by Blizzard themselves.

I have my Tabard already since 2007 and nobody complained just like I had me a dance item or a "I owe you flag" .....but oh boy now that Blizzard introduces of few fluff items on a shop, they are the Devil.

Ridiculous arguments. These in game fluff items are just that: fluff merchandising stuff for the FANS.

You hate it simply because Blizzard makes money.

And you DID NOT CARE when others introduced it in the game AT ALL.

How more double standards do you want to display ???

What's next: take on everyone who buys a WoW mouse and A WoW themed keyboard or T shirt ?

I mean my tabbard shirt in the game is not related to my game achievements, neither is my T shirt.

Both are merchandising items for real fans. Both have NO impact on the game at all.

And Blizzard can sell to their fans in and out of the game what fans like.

It is typical that again non players (as always) spread the usual Blizzard hate with double standard arguments.

they poke around without even caring about the game they in fact hate with a vengeance.

Go burn WoW mice, keyboards and T shirts too because Blizzard makes MONEY by selling them too. just like my new fluff helmet, which absolutely has NO added value other than ...for me.

Shrug, as soon as they start affecting PVE progression by allowing people to buy gear, I will jump ship. Pay to progress is bad in any game, and I think they will shoot themselves in the foot if they go that route. Im fine with the store the way it is now. Im even fine with lesser charms and an XP bonus as long as it it doesnt affect end-game (PVE or PVP).

its have been the same sub fee for years now, atleast in norway. 15 bucks is nothing, and now you can buy some stuff that makes you look better? and you think the tier gear will end up in the same store? nope, why? well atleast blizz have been around for years now and they have seen how other games have fallen in the trap, they wont do that mistake.

You mean a poorly thought out and childish attempt at a strawman argument?

Sure, you carry right on. We'll be right here giving actual reasons we're correct while you giggle to yourselves like Beavis and Butthead..

Childish attempt? It's actual pretty logical and true. Do you really think people are just complaining because they can't afford it? Please. I'm not sure why the casuals can play the "Well I pay $15 a month so I better get to see all content" card but when it comes to us non-casuals who are saying "I pay $15 a month, I should have access to being able to obtain this item in-game without having to pay more money." you start throwing a huge fit.

I play casually now because LFR is better for my time schedule and I don't have much time to play anyway. But now when I log on it's a bunch of entitled little kids playing Pretty Little Princess with transmog gear and no one knows who anyone is on your server. There is no interaction between people. The community of World of Warcraft has gone to absolute shit.

There is no evidence that any extra profit generated from the item shop will be spent creating more content. We have had an item store since Wrath yet Cata had a lot less content

Cata had the most content of any expansion to date. You just don't realize it because you're probably ignoring the several dozen zone revamps they did, a lot of which were basically complete rebuilds. Cata had the least max level content, that much is true.

Wrong! You are currently paying for whatever you are currently getting, whatever that may be. When any said thing changes for better or worse, you then may be paying for whatever that may be. You VOTE with your payment. Your monthly fee exists ONLY IF you keep paying it. People 100% should say whatever they want about something that they may have already paid 6 months in the future for!

This is as DUMB as saying.. "You eat in order to live; nothing more, nothing less." As if the kinds of foods will not have any effect on your future, or your end.

Wrong. You already payed for the game from the box which includes access to whatever that box contained. Vanilla if you only bought the orginal WoW. The $15 is to pay for a game you already bought.

They say it funds more content for you but then there are periods of time with zero content at all. From wrath to cata and cata to MoP both went almost a year without content and when they released the "new content" you had to buy it again even though you were already funding it.

The Blizzard store is not a slippery slope, it is a smart business move to bring in more money for the company. The more resources Blizzard has, the more content they can develop and the better off we are as players.

I agree with you for the most part, but it's a little bit of a gamble by Blizzard. Putting too many items in the Blizzard store in a short time will probably scare off long time fans because they fear the game because too focused on microtransactions. This would cost Blizzard some profit by losing some subscribers.

So yeah, it can become a slippery slope. But as it is now it's still fine. Maybe if they make enough money on the Blizzard store they will eventually let WoW go free to play, especially since they are losing subscribers pretty fast and it's a continuing trend. Anyway, if that is the case we should all be thankful of the Blizzard store for paving the way for WoW to become free to play. I think the only real fear is that eventually Blizzard puts in more than just cosmetic stuff in the Blizzard store, but I don't think they're that stupid.

To the people saying "You're just mad because you're poor!" or whatever, I'm just gonna leave this here:

This is next level. Really funny.

People aren't complaining because they can't afford it. It's the principle of not bending over to an obvious money-grab. Instead of working to earn back those subscribers, Blizzard (or Activision/Sholders) are choosing to sacrifice the integrity of the game.

There was even a quote/screenshot from them a while back saying why WoW will never have an item shop.

Just because they're a business and out to make $, doesn't mean we as players should support blatant money grabs.

Besides, when did we lose all hope that the devs just want to make great games for us to play? Suddenly it's the norm for a gaming company to be all about money.

I for one want to believe that there are still are people out there who would be more than happy with an average salary and are in the business simply because they are passionate about gaming.

The most important thing to realize is that Blizzard will NEVER make Tier Sets or any current content gear available for cash; they are not stupid enough to do that and you can mark my words that it'll never happen.

How about statless transmog gear of all the T-Sets. You like the look of the rogue heroic T-15 set ? Well buy a transmog version of it for 25 dollar. Without any stats of course, strictly cosmetic.
Would that still be ok ?

The most important thing to realize is that Blizzard will NEVER make Tier Sets or any current content gear available for cash; they are not stupid enough to do that and you can mark my words that it'll never happen.

Whilst I'd probably agree with this - I must also stress there are other ways that Blizzard MIGHT also consider instead of a direct-sale. For example, simply setting up an RMAH where players can put duplicate Tier Set tokens up onto a future RMAH, regardless of being soulbound or not.

I mean, look at the lion cub and subsequent pets that you could sell on the AH. Blizz said themselves it's a "safe alternative" to purchasing gold without flooding the market with useless gold. Sure, they don't sell you gold DIRECTLY... but then they have this "alternative".

If there's one thing I can say about Blizz, is that they really know how to lean over on the "bad/greedy" side of the fence without completely falling off! ^_^

They need to change the prices. The current price for a single item is obscene, a collegue of mine who does stuff like this, can draw and animate those 3 helmets in a matter of hours, the price is absolutely atrocious.